Thomas Alva Edison, one of our most important influential inventors to ever walk the Earth, was born in Milan, Ohio on
February 11, 1847. He was the seventh son of Nancy and Sam Edison. Edison went to school early in his life, but for only three months. Earlier in his mom’s life, she had been a school teacher, and
decided that she would school him at home. She taught him to read and write, and always encouraged him to experiment with ideas he fostered. Edison became a telegraph operator after saving Jimmie
Mackenzie from a runaway train. Jimmies father, J.U. Mackenzie, the Mount Clemens, Michigan station agent was so grateful to Thomas for saving his child, he offered to teach young Edison to become
a telegraph operator. Thomas was pleased.

On December 25, 1871 Thomas married 16 year old Mary Stilwell. He had known her for only two months prior to getting
married. Together, they had three children, Marion, William, and Thomas Jr. Their marriage was strong, but unfortunately Mary died in August of 1884. She left behind a husband, and three very young
children, her oldest only being 11 years old. After Mary died, Thomas remarried at the age of thirty-nine, and had another three children with his second wife named Mina Miller. Their children’s
names were, Madeline, Charles, and Theodore. Mina lived longer than Edison, she died on August 24, 1947. Besides having many children, he also experimented a lot. He invented many things that we
use today, things that we think we couldn’t live without.

After working with telegraphs for a while Thomas learned about electricity and how things worked electrically. This later
helped him with his inventions. In 1878, Edison patented the sound recording and reproducing phonograph, or record player. Phonograph is a word meaning “sound writer” and was the first device used
to replay and record sound. Imagine, without this important invention, we wouldn’t have the advanced technology that we are all acustom to today. It was the first step at having radio, and playing
our music.

We also owe Thomas Edison for how our motion pictures are made today. He wanted to invent a motion picture camera that
didn’t cost a lot to operate, and a camera that just needed one to do the job. The motion picture camera he made was called the kinetograph, and he also made a device that is used for viewing the
movies it shot, called the kinetoscope. Today, we have our home movie cameras that run on nothing more than a battery, which Edison also had a hand in patenting. Nonetheless, the kinetoscope, and
the kinetograph, have helped us develop better cameras we use today. We would probably be farther behind in our camera technology if these two movie devices were not invented.

One of the most famous inventions from Edison, is the incandescent light bulb. In 1880, Edison produced the version of light
bulbs we use today. The incandescent light bulb. These where the first bulbs that lasted for hundreds of hours, and were very dependable. They are still used every second of the
day.

Throughout Thomas Edison’s life, he patented 1,093 inventions, earning him the nickname “The Wizard of Menlo Park.” His most
famous invention was the incandescent bulb, we use today. “Genius is one percent inspiration, and is 99 percent perspiration.” stated Edison. He always believed in hard work. Edison died at the age
of 84 years old, at 3:21 AM on October 18, 1931. As a tribute, all electric lights dimmed for one minute after his death. The end of a great American inventor.